THE grieving family of nurse Jacintha Saldanha - who took her own life after falling prey to a Sydney radio prank call - laid her to rest in her homeland of India yesterday.

Police reinforcements were dispatched to the sleepy south Indian town of Shirva yesterday as media descended on the Our Lady of Health Church, where more than 1000 mourners gathered for the late afternoon funeral liturgy.

Ms Saldanha hanged herself in the nurses' quarters at King Edward VII hospital, two days after she was tricked into transferring a call from 2DayFM radio DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian to the hospital ward of the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge.

The body of the 46-year-old London-based nurse arrived on Sunday in Mangalore, the tropical town on the edge of the Arabian Sea where she was born and raised, and taken to the family home of her husband Benedict Barboza, for a blessing.

It was the final quiet moment her husband and two children, Junal, 16, and Lisha, 14, shared with her. A public viewing in the airy gothic cathedral was cancelled because of the mayhem.

As they carried her coffin into the place of worship, Mr Barboza and Junal, along with the other pall bearers, struggled for balance amid the crowds of media and curious locals.

Hours before the service yesterday the family of Mr Barboza appealed for privacy as the stricken widower inspected the church and the grave site.

A young male relative said the family had been devastated by the degree of intrusion, particularly a frenzied scrum at Mangalore airport in which media jostled for pictures of Ms Saldanha's children.

Benedict Barboza carrying the coffin of his wife into the Our Lady of Church in Shirva / Pic: Graham CrouchSource: The Daily Telegraph

"We're simple people," he said. "The family are very upset by the media. They really need their privacy."

Other members of Ms Saldanha's family also expressed concern about the publicity in light of the fragile health of the nurse's 74-year-old mother. Carmine Saldanha has been inconsolable since her daughter's death.

The local parish was doing everything it could yesterday to grant the family's wishes, with police perimeters set up around the church and barricades established at the walkway leading from the church to the quiet, palm-lined graveyard.

But this was no ordinary small-town funeral.

District Bishop, the Right Reverend Gerald Isaac Lobo, delivered the funeral mass.

Parish priest Father Stany Tauro, who performed the graveside rites, said a family member gave a homily during the service.

In this most Catholic enclave of India, at this most important time of the year, her death has resonated with the community.

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